RISE

Hazel Simmons never planned to come back to Bar Harbor. Not to the house that holds her hardest memories— or to the half-renovated bakery her grandmother secretly left behind. But after burning out in Boston and losing the one person who truly knew her, home is the only place left to go.

What Hazel doesn’t expect is Beck: the gruff lighthouse caretaker who always seems to be there when she needs him. Quiet, steady, and carrying shadows of his own, Beck might be the one person who can see past Hazel’s walls.

As grief lingers and old wounds resurface, Hazel must decide what she’s willing to risk: the comfort of solitude, or a love that could finally feel like coming home.

Set on the coast of Maine, Rise is a heartfelt debut about second chances, small-town connection, and the slow, unexpected ways love finds us.